There are many points during the lifespan of a company when it will have to survive in the face of adversity. Unforeseen events are inevitable. However, any organisation can only be expected to succeed if it can overcome these unanticipated hurdles. The act of ensuring functional and effective work operations during disasters is called business continuity. You might ask the question: How can a business be prepared for an event of which it is not even aware?
For this, an organisation must practise business continuity planning. This comprises preparing and prioritising a plan of action for unpredictable events. While it may have been difficult a few decades ago, thanks to the age of the internet, you can easily form a satisfactory plan.
How to use AI and Cloud Technologies to Ensure your Business Continuity
Up until a decade ago, business continuity management was highly dependent on top management and the work was in the hands of the employees. However, companies are now aided by technology and not only perform tasks unimaginable earlier but also do them in fraction of the time. Artificial intelligence and cloud technology have added immense value to the process of mitigating risks and ensuring seamless business continuity. Here is how you can make use of the same for your organisation:
Solving Employee Queries Instantly
In the time of emergency, it is to be expected that your employees might have a few questions. However, it is impractical to assume that any superior may be in the position to help them out while mitigating risks themselves. An easy solution is to automate the process and allow your employees to solve their problems themselves. Using artificial intelligence, you can create chatbots and autonomous social media groups that let the workers seek answers without the assistance of any authoritative figure. In case an AI manual is unable to help the employee, the system can be programmed to connect the person to an HR representative in reality.
Benefits: You can provide subordinates with an outlet to showcase their concerns without spending the time of higher-ups. This saves time and effort that eventually translate to money in a situation like this.
Understanding your Clients
The root of any successful B2B business is its sales, especially during emergencies or unfavourable times. Customer service is, of course, an extremely valuable and necessary addition. To ensure a prosperous result, you have to make the most of your consumer service. Apart from increasing customer satisfaction, AI and cloud technology also allow you to understand the patterns of consumer behaviour and tailor your work operations accordingly.
Let’s assume that a bear market persists and you need to ensure effective work operations. An analysis of your consumers’ buying habits will reveal your most popular services or products. Then you can home in on the most profitable products you offer. You can cut out the fat (money and effort on mediocre-selling goods) and focus on the goods that have proven to be bought the most.
With AI-integrated cloud technology, you can map out the patterns of your consumers, pinpoint successful marketing campaigns, and become aware of your shortcomings through feedback and call flows.
Benefits: You can use market research to prioritise premium customers and well-received products. Unnecessary expenditure on rarely bought services can be saved.
Self-Service Customer Support
The first concern of an organisation while faced with an unforeseen event is to mitigate the risks of the business and ensure sales are not affected. Generally, all hands are on deck for the same. However, it is important still to service your consumers and keep them satisfied. Your clients’ attention is indispensable in that situation. How can you attend to your clients if you have fires to put out?
Leave it to the cloud. IVR (Interactive Voice Response) and other cloud telephony services have been put to use in contact centres for years. Using IVR, your customer’s calls can be rerouted automatically to the preferred department. Add AI to the mix, and build an unparalleled system that offers self-service menus to your consumers.
Customers can navigate through IVR and be rerouted to several menus where they recite their concerns through keyboard or voice inputs. Using keywords in the inputs, AI can guide the caller to a pre-recorded solution. In case you do not find any reply appropriate, an agent can use recall technology to correct the response.
Benefits: Customers can solve queries and make payments on call, allowing your agents to spend time on pressing matters. Your clients leave satisfied while you focus on priorities.
Automated Backup Processes
A company’s information and database is the cornerstone of current work operations and future business strategizing. Backups are no longer just a bonus. The more your company grows, the more backups become avoidable.
A failure in infrastructure or network can cause havoc if you lose your data. There was a time when employees had to back up their work manually. This could seize a chunk of time that can be better spent working towards goals. The advent of technology has automated this process so as to award the workers with time and convenience.
Artificial intelligence-integrated software will back up your data using cloud technology as frequently as you wish. You can set the software to do so every few days or even every few hours. In case of disaster situations when a unit might fail, you can be assured that the work is backed up on cloud technology and can be retained quickly on any other device.
Benefits: Artificial intelligence ensures that you are not depending on human effort for this process, while cloud solutions allow you to access the backup from any device attached to it.
Marketing to Maintain Presence
Marketing campaigns make new audiences aware of your company and introduce new products and services to existing clients. Multiple channels are now available for companies to use.
In cases of national emergencies and disasters, companies often prefer saving money on marketing endeavours to focus on other departments. However, the importance of a presence rather increases in trying times. Thankfully, companies do not have to rely on traditional methods and spend obscene amounts of money to advertise their products.
Social media is a rather popular spot to market to clients. Even without spending money on the same, you can introduce new products and services by building an army of followers or encouraging sharing posts through unique contests and campaigns. You can use chatbots on social media, powered by artificial intelligence, to send people messages making them aware of the novel creations.
Another method is to use cloud technology to add messages to your greetings. People on call will be aware of your recent offerings every time they attempt to call you. Using IVR, you can divert their call to a particular department for information if they are interested.
Benefits: You can save money while making people aware of your products. Even in tough situations, there may be a shift in your consumer base. Hence, it is important to stay present. Out of sight, out of mind.
Analysis of Impact
As mentioned earlier, cloud technology can be very useful to measure the effects of any plan of action. Using AI-powered cloud technology, you can gauge the results of your planning by understanding client responses. This is very important when you are making reports for your performance under distressing events.
Conclusion
The events of 2020 have made it abundantly clear that every organisation must formulate a plan of action to ensure business continuity. With the use of AI and cloud technology, you can automate several processes, ultimately saving time, money & effort that can be used elsewhere. Planning for business continuity is now easier with prediction features of technology and thus, employing AI and cloud technology will allow you to run a successful business even in the face of adversity.
